UTSA has first practice at new facility on Main Campus

Courtesy: UTSA AthleticsRelease: 08/26/2013

Courtesy UTSA Athletics

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Larry Coker post-practice transcriptMonday, Aug. 26

On practicing at the new on-campus facility for the first time …“This is phenomenal. This is great. I’m excited about it, but more importantly than that, our players are just really elated about it. They wanted to be here today. I thought if we have to practice at Dub (Farris Stadium) this week that’s fine. It’s just been great for us; it’s a great move. I really appreciate what Dr. Romo and Lynn Hickey have done. It’s just a beautiful place. I haven’t been around any better, to be quite honest with you, so I’m very pleased about it. It’s going to help us be better.”

On the improved facilities as program continues to grow …“I ran a 4.7 today and normally I do a 4.9, so to have these new facilities has been a lot different, but in a good way. I told Lynn this is my fourth year here and to see this come to be has been fantastic. More importantly, the players are really excited about it. I’ve never seen players this excited about a practice on a Monday.”

On players seeing the new practice facility for the first time …“We’ve got real goal posts up, real college goal posts up on both ends. We’ve got film towers. We’ve got basically the same thing everybody else has. We’re really appreciative of it. It really means a lot to us, a lot to the program and a lot to recruiting, because people can use that against us. ‘They don’t have any facilities, they don’t have any place to practice, they practice on a high school field.’ All those types of things, but we have a place to practice now. I want to thank the Northside Independent School District. That was awesome for them to allow us to use Dub. I think it got our program jump-started as much as anything. We appreciate that”

On the convenience of an on-campus practice facility …“Just to go downstairs and get dressed for practice or to go to class is huge. Because there is so much time in transit that the coaches and players have had to do in the past with us being off campus, this saves a lot of time. Honestly, we would come back from practice and there’d be no parking on campus because of the crowds. This is really special for us to be able to do this.”

On the challenges of transitioning to game week …“That’s what I was concerned about; that there would be challenges. Maybe the clock didn’t work or maybe they couldn’t get the goal posts up. Fifteen thousand things can happen, but everything went smooth today and everything worked well. I think that’s a really good point everything was pretty smooth. I really have to thank Mike Villa and his staff. This is a huge thing that they’ve done transitioning to move all this stuff and get it set up for us. To have an equipment staff like that, you don’t worry about doing their job so that makes your job easier.”

On players’ attention now that it is game week …“Attention was good today. I told them at the end of practice we had some mistakes today and we’re going to make some mistakes Saturday, but I don’t want to make foolish mistakes. Let’s get those things ironed out. When we get on the flight Friday, I want us to be very confident and go out and let loose; play and have fun. Don’t be worried about making a mistake. Let’s get all those things ironed out here and when we’re in Albuquerque let’s just play.”

On New Mexico …“They’re really good. The running back’s really good. They do an outstanding job running the football. They’re an improved team and that’s not just coach-speak. I was out there at a clinic a few years ago and they’re much improved. Bob Davie and his staff have done a great job. They’re running the ball extremely well and I know they’ve improved a lot on their passing game. Defensively, they’ve got a really good solid front. They’re going to really be a challenge for us.”

On being able to focus on just football instead of behind-the-scenes issues …“I think we have grown into that. I think we’re smart enough to realize that some of these things are just going to take time. We’re in the fast food generation. We want our Big Mac right now. Again, it’s a process and we know that. Our players have been understanding. They’ve practiced their backsides off at Dub Farris and now to see this new facility, I’m excited for them because they bought into it. They really bought into nothing here but a vision and now they’ve seen this vision come to fruition. Lynn Hickey was here this morning and I actually got a hug from Lynn. I don’t know if that’s legal or not, but I did because of what she’s done as far as building this program.”

On thinking back to the very first workout at Dub Farris Stadium in September 2010 …“As a coach, anything that we do you think of in terms of making the best of it and whatever it is, it is. We’re not going to make excuses, but we were thin and weren’t very big, weren’t very strong and didn’t know how to practice. This is such a different group of young men. They’ve just grown so much and this coaching staff is outstanding. It has been a blur though, as I said it’s been four years and it’s just gone by really fast for me. Lynn said I was on a honeymoon, I think that honeymoon is over. I think it’s real ball now.”